The invention concerns the household items, specifically the devices for storing knives used in houses and apartments.
Knife blocks are widely used in kitchens in residential housing; these blocks are sold either in a set with the knives or separately. Many patents and patent applications exist for various knife blocks offering a wide range of innovation, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,552 that allows one to adjust the size of the slots to fit different knives, U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,231 that describes expandable blocks to accommodate a variable number of knives, U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,006 disclosing a block that can be disassembled for easy cleaning, US-2006/0117575A1 that proposes a block coupled with special cutlery implements, US-2008/0060205A1 that equips a block with magnets to hold knives securely and attach the block to any iron surface, U.S. Pat. No. 1,946,779 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,453, describing devices capable of accommodating a variety of implements in addition to knives, and US-2011/0283547 A1 that reduces the weight of a block and saves valuable wood by utilizing cork in its construction. A drawback of knife blocks is that they occupy space on a kitchen table or counter, where free space is typically scarce. Thus, many households forgo knife blocks and keep their knives in kitchen drawers along with other utensils. This practice creates a danger of getting an accidental cut when selecting an item from the drawer. Further the knives in a drawer are prone to blunt against other metal items. There are knife blocks that can be placed in the drawers but these blocks take up the entire drawer, which again wastes premium kitchen space that can usually be utilized more efficiently for other purposes. Thus, drawer-placed blocks have found limited acceptance.
Many patents exist for knife holders and knife racks that are wall mounted, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 768,266; 1,876,284; 2,459,391; 2,479,181 A; 2,955,789; 4,561,548 A; 5,050,749, 7,434,693. U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,102 further discloses a holder that can be mounted either horizontally on a work surface or vertically. However, these holders do not find usage in residential kitchens because of their large size relative to the capacity and/or industrial appearance. In particular, a magnetic wall mounted knife holder made by Würsthof is commercially available. This holder, in addition to the above-mentioned drawbacks, is also unsafe: it leaves the knife blades open and does not exclude a possibility that a knife may fall off due to an accidental disturbance and hurt a person's foot or get damaged. Further patents target holders for instruments other than knives; for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,055 discloses a holder for dental utensils with a beautified front plaque that encourages the use of the utensils. However, they do not address the aforementioned drawbacks of knife holders.